CTA 102 blazar
Thanks to the special notice https://www.aavso.org/aavso-special-notice-426 , since one month this exotic object make my nights, some of those so long voyage photons (8 bilions year) are not lost.
Since one month the light coming from mag. 17 is fluctuate from 13.5 to 11, sometime very quickly. It is probably the only object that "observers" can follow in the past or future, everywhere in the univers. But strangely on earth, the coverage of the light evolution is better during the European nights than any other regions. This lack of observation is not only for the visual one.
Because of the very quick evolution a better coverage could be helpful to understand the phenomenon, isn't it?
Do someone explain this, is the weather forecast so bad everywhere in the world than in Europe?
However, some posts in CloudyNights are very actif about CTA102, don't hesitate to have a look.
We can make visual estimation of this quasar easily with very simple telescope, yesterday I catch it with a 5" bino magnification only 40x.
Michel
Hi Michel,
I have been an active quasar observer for many years, but I have not yet observed a quasar with a redshift of z => 1.0 with an apparent brightness of about 11mag. CTA 102 is probably at the moment one of the brightest objects in the universe.
Best greetings and many clear nights in 2017
Klaus Wenzel
Wenigumstadt Germany
It seems that this object is opticaly up and running again magn +/- +13.5 to be confirmed.
Michel